A deeper understanding of Greek scholar Marcus Musurus
The EU-funded 'Learning Greek in the Renaissance: Marcus Musurus, philologist, editor of Greek texts and teacher' (MUSURUS) project studied the historical figure's role in spreading the Greek language in the West. The time period covers the 15th and 16th centuries, and examines Musurus' philological, editorial and teaching activities. Specific objectives were achieved in three main areas. The first concerns the philological and historical sector and offers deepened research on Musurus' editions. Study notes were used to reconstruct the features of the Greek scholar's teaching activity, and helped to evaluate its role in spreading knowledge of Greek in Italy and Europe. In the area of palaeography, project work completed knowledge of Musurus' library, adding to the cultural material of copied manuscripts or manuscripts owned by Musurus. Contributions to the third area — research methodology — include MUSURUS' interdisciplinary approach and shining light on a known but neglected material as well as documentation that is usually occasional and fragmentary. The project's final output was the production of two monographs: one on Marcus Musurus and one on Theocritus of Marcus Musurus. The Section de l'Humanisme of the Institute de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), which oversees Europa Humanistica, accepted these monographs as worthy of great scientific interest.
